Cheyenne, Wyoming

History

On July 4, 1867 the first tents were pitched on the site now known as Cheyenne, to house the gangs who were constructing the Union Pacific Railroad. Most of the crew moved on when the right-of-way was completed in November that year. The remnant who stayed were joined by others including transient railroad gangs, soldiers from Fort D.A. Russell (now F.E. Warren Air Force Base), and men from Camp Carlin, a supply camp for all the northern army posts on the frontier.

Related Topics:
July 4 - 1867 - Union Pacific Railroad - F.E. Warren Air Force Base

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The city was named by Grenville Dodge for the Native American Cheyenne nation, one of the most famous and prominent Great Plains tribes, closely allied with the Arapaho. The Cheyenne were among the fiercest fighters on the plains. Not pleased with the changes brought about by the railroad, they had harassed both railroad surveyors and construction crews that year.

Related Topics:
Grenville Dodge - Cheyenne - Great Plains - Arapaho

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As the capital of the Wyoming Territory and the only city of any consequence, as well as being the seat of the stockyards where cattle were loaded on the Union Pacific Railroad, the city's Cheyenne Club was the natural meeting place for the organization of the large well-capitalized ranches, the Wyoming Stock Growers Association. (See Johnson County War of 1892, the largest of the "range wars" of early Wyoming history). The newspaper offices of Asa Shinn Mercer's Northwestern Livestock Journal were burned down when the paper, which was founded as a public relations vehicle for the moneyed cattle interests, began to write scathing accounts of the events that were unfolding on the open range. His account is told in his book The Banditti of the Plains, still unavailable in Wyoming.

Related Topics:
Wyoming Territory - Union Pacific Railroad - Johnson County War - Asa Shinn Mercer - The Banditti of the Plains

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As a town created by the railroad, Cheyenne fittingly preserves one of the eight surviving Union Pacific Big Boy locomotives, some of the largest steam locomotives ever built, designed for hauling freight over the Rocky Mountains.

Related Topics:
Union Pacific Big Boy - Rocky Mountains

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